1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coupling structure between a door lock and a door lock-actuator used for locking or unlocking a door of a vehicle electrically according to a switch operation by coupling the door lock and the door lock-actuator for actuating the door lock, and more particularly to coupling structure between an output shaft of the door lock-actuator and a lock lever of the door lock.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, the aforementioned door lock and the door lock-actuator have been coupled as shown in FIG. 3, for example.
Namely, FIG. 3 is an illustration showing a system for opening and closing a door D of the vehicle, the opening and closing system is provided with a door lock 50, a door lock-actuator 60, an outside handle H, an inside handle (not shown) and a lock knob (not shown), and the door lock 50 is provided with a latch 51 to be engaged with a striker (not shown) disposed on a vehicle body.
The outside handle H and the inside handle are connected with the door lock 50 through an outside handle rod 31 and an inside handle rod 32. The operation of the outside handle H or the inside handle is transmitted to the door lock 50 through the rod 31 or 32 and the door D is so structured as to be opened by disengagement of the latch 51 engaged with the striker of the vehicle body.
The door lock 50 is provided with a lock lever 52 for restricting the movement of the latch 51 and locking the door D according to the swing in the counterclockwise direction in the figure. The lock lever 52 is connected to a key cylinder K through a key rod 33, and connected to the lock knob through a bell crank B, a first and a second lock rods 34 and 35, and the door D is locked or unlocked by a key-operation from the outside of the vehicle or by an operation of the lock knob from the inside of the vehicle.
The door lock-actuator 60 is provided with a small-sized D.C. motor and a reduction gear in a casing, is designed so as to output the bi-directional rotation of the motor reductively as a reciprocative rotation of an output shaft 61 and disposed with a swing arm 62 on the output shaft. The door lock-actuator 60 is positioned so that the end of the swing arm 62 may be engaged to a cutout 52a formed in the lock lever 52 of the door lock 50, and the door D is so designed as to be locked or unlocked according to the angular rotation of the swing arm 62 in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction on the basis of the forward or reverse directional rotation of the small-sized motor in addition to the operation of the key or the lock knob. Therefore, it is possible to lock or unlock all the doors of the vehicle collectively by operating a door lock switch disposed on the side of the driver's seat, and possible to lock the doors automatically in combination with a car-speed sensor when the vehicle starts to run.
However, in the conventional coupling structure between the door lock and the door lock-actuator, at the time of mounting the door lock-actuator 60 in the door D, it is required to couple the swing arm 62 of the door lock-actuator 60 with the lock lever 52 of the door lock 50 in a state where the end of the swing arm 62 is engaged to the cutout 52a of the lock lever 52, accordingly, it is necessary to set in advance the positions of the swing arm 62 and the lock lever 52 so that the end of the swing arm 62 may fit to the cutout 52a of the lock lever 52.
Namely, in the case where the lock lever 52 of the door lock 50 sits at the position as shown in FIG. 4, it is not possible to engage the end of the swing arm 62 in the cutout 52a of the lock lever 52. Accordingly, it is necessary to previously shift the lock lever 52 to the position shown with two-dot chain lines from the position shown with solid lines (naturally, the swing arm 62 may be shifted toward the lower side in the figure).
As mentioned above, in the conventional coupling structure between the door lock and the door lock-actuator, there is a problem in that it is troublesome to install the door lock-actuator 60 in the door D and is required much labor because it is necessary to make the positions of the swing arm 62 of the door lock-actuator 60 and the lock lever 52 of the door lock 50 coincide with each other previous to the coupling of the door lock 50 and the door lock-actuator 60.